Moments after being awarded $2.2 million in damages, Devon Nicholson picked up his 185-pound lawyer like a twig, flinging him over his shoulder in a move he calls the “sacrifice power bomb.”

So went the happy dance of the pro wrestler, the ring bad guy they call Hannibal.

“I’m very happy,” he said outside court, dressed all in black, with slicked-back hair, like the ring showman he is. “I feel it was very just. The right verdict was given, for sure.”

Nicholson, 31, capped an odyssey of sorts Tuesday when a court did a three-count pin-down in his favour against Larry Shreve, 73, a legendary Windsor man better known as Abdullah the Butcher.

A budding pro wrestler, Nicholson has contended for about four years now that he contracted the hepatitis C virus from Shreve during a bloody match in Cochrane, Alta., in 2007.

Once he tested positive for the virus in 2009, Nicholson, an Orléans resident, was forced to back out of a three-year contract offered by the WWE, the giant wrestling promoter, putting his career on hold.

It has been his dream to join the ranks of the Hulk Hogans of the world since he was a boy putting on wrestling matches in his backyard.

“This is my passion. This is my love. I truly think I can be a big star for them.”

Devon Nicholson demonstrates the ‘sacrifice power bomb’ on lawyer Marc Sauvé outside the Ottawa courthouse on Tuesday after winning a judgment against fellow wrestler Abdullah the Butcher.Ottawa Citizen

Nicholson, who stands six-foot three and weighs about 270 pounds, is an accomplished amateur wrestler, winning several national championships and contending for the Canadian Olympic team. He has also wrestled professionally across Canada, in England, and the Caribbean.

Justice Giovanna Toscano Roccamo, in an hour-long ruling, laid out the unusual case, even referring to the writings of wrestler Jesse Ventura and quoting the testimony of one Superstar Billy Graham, who grapples limbs, not sinners.

So too did she refer to the scale of earnings of low-, mid- and high-end ring attractions, who make from $70,000 to $1 million annually.

Though Shreve did not attend or defend himself, the justice, in effect, ruled that Nicholson has been telling the truth all along.

She agreed he caught the hep-C virus from Shreve after the 500-pound villain — a hall-of-famer — engaged in a practice known as “blading”, when a wrestler intentionally cuts himself to produce blood as a gory side-effect. A video presented in court showed Shreve cutting Nicholson six or seven times with the same bloody blade, without his prior consent.

Also telling is the fact both men had so-called Genotype-2 hep-C, which only 10 per cent of carriers have. Only a year or two before the fateful bout, Nicholson had a blood test giving him a clean bill of health, and court was told he did not he engage in risky practices (such as intravenous drug use) that often spread the virus.

“Mr. Shreve has been saying all along that I’m a liar,” said Nicholson. “Now we know I’ve been telling the truth.”

The judge awarded a little over $2 million for past and future lost income, $150,000 in general damages, $30,000 to Nicholson’s parents, Gwyn and Laura, and about $140,000 in legal costs.

The question now, of course, is whether Nicholson will ever see a penny.

“To tell you the truth, we don’t know,” said lawyer Ronald Caza. There are treaties between the two countries, he said, and rules for enforcing court orders.

It is a matter now of legal negotiations with lawyers in the Atlanta area, where Shreve lives, and an exploration of what assets could be targeted. He is reported to be in the restaurant business in Georgia.

Nicholson, indeed, has been body-slammed by the virus.

After trying traditional treatments, he resorted to an American physician who tried an experimental therapy of new drugs for 36 weeks. It worked, but it nearly ruined him. He lost 45 pounds and had to endure weeks of insomnia, fatigue, headaches, depression, and endless itching.

“It was horrible,” he said at the time.

The treatment ended in June 2013 and a succession of follow-ups test has found that he is healthy and virus-free. The lingering problem, however, is that he carries the antibodies, which is a no-no in a handful of U.S. states.

Still, he intends to try out for the WWE again in July in Iowa and continues to wrestle locally.

“I truly think it sends a great message to everyone with hep-C,” said Nicholson. “It doesn’t mean your life is over.”

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